


Fourth Time Lucky

by unkahii



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Other, Teen Romance, a bit of angst, fluffy fluff, idk really, oikawa maybe a little ooc, sort of strangers to friends to lovers (?)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:42:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27405223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unkahii/pseuds/unkahii
Summary: — Four times he asks you out; thrice he fails, once he succeeds.
Relationships: Oikawa Tooru/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 67





	1. [one]

It was the third week of your second year of high-school. Raindrops descended from the overcast sky in an endless downpour, hitting the surfaces of the buildings mercilessly. The classroom, chilly and dark was empty except for you and him, standing a couple of meters apart. You waited in silence for speech to blossom from Tooru Oikawa’s mouth.

-“Please go out with me, L/n. I really like you.”

To be completely honest, you had expected something along these lines, so your eyebrows only rose upwards gently. The empty classroom; him whisking you away here by sending word through Iwaizumi; the silence that came as a prelude; the obvious blush marring his otherwise overconfident expressions—they were all overdone tropes found in a typical shoujo romance. But not until the words had emerged from him, could you actually believe even your own instincts—the heartthrob of Seijoh, _the_ Tooru Oikawa was asking _you_ out.

Maybe it was your mind playing illusions, maybe it really was that way, but his chocolate brown hairs looked a tiny bit more dishevelled than usual. He was still clad in the official Aoba Johsai uniform just like you, denoting that he had decided to get over with this confrontation before he went over for volleyball practice, probably concerned that you might go home early and he lose his chance. Oikawa stared at you with what seemed earnestly pleading eyes, patiently hoping for a positive answer.

-“I am sorry, but I can’t.”

His face fell dramatically fast, a pout forming on his lips that were excessively smooth for a guy who lost buckets of water sweating every day. Meanwhile, in your head you readied a response to the question that you were 100% sure would follow next.

-“Why?” he asked, as you had predicted.

-“See, Oikawa, I get it that we are in the same class and all but we barely know each other to be honest. The only things I know about you are that, first, you play volleyball and second, have hordes of fangirls that obsess about you. I can’t date you like that.”

His face visibly relaxed upon hearing your blunt, cutthroat explanation. Sighing audibly in relief, he shot you a flirtatious smirk.

-“Thank goodness. I thought you hated me.”

So, even the Tooru Oikawa could _speak_ of having insecurities. You were highly curious to see what other surprises waited for you after this.

-“I don’t. However, given your trashy personality, it won’t be difficult,” you said, half joking, half serious. He faked being hurt by making a crying face.

-“You are being so mean, L/n!” Oikawa whined, while offering you a wink. Apparently, all his seriousness from earlier had evaporated into oblivion within a matter of only a few seconds. A laugh bubbled out of you unconsciously watching his hilariously dramatic antics.

-“At least give me your number,” he insisted. “Then you can get to know that I _don’t_ have a trashy personality. And the next time I ask you out, you will definitely say yes.”

You snorted in wry amusement. “That is not happening, Oikawa.”

-“Give me your number first,” he repeated. “I’ll prove you wrong with my charms.”

-“Don’t you have practice?”

-“ _Please_.”

Who could’ve thought that this was a guy who had just got rejected? Who could’ve ever said that this could be anything more than a casual crush?

You couldn’t at least.


	2. [two]

The decorum in the library was to maintain a pin-drop silence ideal for reading. But here you were, violently shaking with raucous laughter that had been brought about by another one of his stupendously ridiculous jokes. As if those 2am chats with him were not enough, recently he had started popping up in the library at least once every day, invariably within the time span that you spent there, studying after school. Not that you were seriously complaining, because in your 2 month long friendship with Tooru Oikawa, you had come to know that if he tried, he could make a good friend.

And you tried your very best to keep your chaotic feelings bounded within that ‘just friends’ tag only, although it seemed to be becoming an increasingly difficult job nowadays—what with the way both of you had started enjoying the other’s company a bit too much to keep the ‘just friends’ tag viable.

You had to clap a hand over your mouth to muffle the laughter, lest you be banned from the library forever for creating such din. Tooru appeared to have followed suit, for the sound of that rare free-spirited laugh of his also died down. A few more seconds passed and finally you managed to quieten. The silence of the library had finally returned back for just a couple of seconds, when you heard him say—

-“God, Y/n, please go out with me.”

Despite the early summer heat, the temperature in the library could’ve dropped a few degrees. Slowly, you looked up with an alien trepidation beating through your heart to meet his chestnut brown eyes. All vestiges of mirth and humour was gone from his visage and instead etching his unfairly handsome features was an expression of deadly seriousness, the very same look that appeared on his face when he was about to deliver another killer serve, or was doling out instructions to destroy the opposite team. A shiver ran down your spine.

The first inklings of romantic feelings for Tooru Oikawa that had been born in your heart had been effectively silenced and stowed away by you. But now that you sat, your gaze captured by the calm surety in his eyes, you doubted how much you could do that. The semblance of a ‘yes’ was creeping up your throat, ready to be spoken out.

-“I don’t think so Tooru. No.”

If the last time he had looked hurt, this time he looked genuinely devastated. His brows furrowed into a tight angsty line and he opened his mouth to ask the customary question but you beat him to it.

-“Look,” you said softly, “We both have busy lives. You are busy with volleyball; I am busy with my studies. It will never work out, you and me in a relationship.”

His scowl deepened, as if to say, _“It’s only because you don’t want it to work out.”_

He was partly true and so were you. He was still in his practice clothes, having dropped by here in the middle of training, and you still in the school uniform—the difference being symbolic of the gap between your professional worlds and the gap that separated you from dating him, the volleyball god of Seijoh. In his eyes was hurt and accuse—because the problem with Tooru was that he always knew. Unfortunate as it could be, your heart and mind was an open book that he could leaf through with ease.

Tooru knew. He always knew and that was the worst part.

-“I see,” he mumbled in a monotone before rising up and adding, “I’ll get going then.”

In spite of the fact that it was him who had been rejected for the second time just now, your heart felt oddly heavy too.


	3. [three]

With a few more flourishes of your wrist, you finished the sum and with a smile shoved the copy towards him. For some moments, you quietly watched the side to side movement of his slightly widened eyes. Tooru’s lips morphed into a soft grateful smile, which instantly caused your heartbeats to quicken.

-“Thank you,” he said, without any added drama or exaggeration like usual. Maybe it was your yes pulling tricks on your perception once more, but these days the tiny hint of sadness never seemed to leave those deep chocolate orbs of Tooru. Guilt curdled in your chest at the thought that you were most likely the reason for the absence of the childish glitter in his eyes.

The Stupid Tooru, the Drama-queen Tooru, and the Flirty Tooru had hidden themselves in a secret attic. Now it was always serious Tooru.

-“What’s with the pissy face Y/n?” he asked, effectively breaking your reverie.

His attempt at fooling was fake, you could tell it. And the fact that no smile made its way to your lips despite that silly pout he had put on, let him know that you could spot the apparently concealed difference.

-“Hey, your highness, don’t be like that,” he cooed. Your frown must have grown in intensity at his words.

Nobody could say on the day he asked you out for the first time that this could ever go anywhere. But, fortunately or unfortunately, you couldn’t tell, Tooru’s feelings continued to persist, growing stronger and stronger till…

-“Hey,” he whispered, cupping your face all of a sudden. “You know what you are to me, 'kay?”

…Till you were left standing in a no-man’s-land between the two warring sides of your head—rationality and emotion.

-“Why?” Your voice had come out as strangely choked. “Why me, Tooru? You must have plenty of chicks queuing up to be with you, so why me? This doesn’t make sense.”

-“I know it doesn’t,” he said. Your faces were incredibly close now, mere inches apart. You could feel his warm, strained breath fanning your skin. Your eyes gravitated towards his lips that were probably awaiting yours upon them.

You shut your eyes. And then said—

-“I-I can’t right now. I am sorry, Tooru. I need some time.”

It was an unjust, selfish demand. You already have had plenty of time, taken too many weeks, and quite a few months. Once more as the escapist in you acted up, a coldness seeped into the space separating you from him. Tooru’s hands dropped from your cheeks mechanically and he looked away, unsmiling and uncharacteristically silent.

-“Maybe I’ll leave now. Please tell your mom that I enjoyed the cakes.”


	4. [four]

3 weeks devoid of communication, 3 weeks of silence, 2 days after Aoba Johsai once more lost to Shiratorizawa in the Prefectural finals of the Spring Tournament. You had tucked tail and ran away, leaving him to deal with heartbreak again. And now you had procured the strangest habit of haunting the ajar entrance of the volleyball club’s gym almost every day—always going up to the door, battling your ego, hesitating, then returning back.

You had spoken your mind out that day at Tooru’s house, but little did you realise at that time that all the wishes in your heart had remained painfully unsaid. Sadness had settled into your chest in the aftermath—a heavy, dead weight. That sadness soon was joined by an uncontrollable longing and regret and restless thoughts. The image of his face seemed to have been irritatingly imprinted on your mind, for every time you closed your eyes before going to sleep, it was his unnecessarily handsome face that blocked the approach of your slumber.

Just like the other days, after some quiet minutes of standing by the large doors, listening to the regular sound of the volleyball hitting the gym’s floor, you turned about with a sigh and set off on the return journey. The door opened and closed behind you and you chose to ignore it as usual.

-“Y/n?”

You were forced to freeze in your tracks. All force was suddenly drained away from your legs and with what seemed jelly instead of muscles and bones, you turned about.

-“Long time no see!” Tooru greeted in a loud sing-song voice, a stupid grin plastered across his face. So, Iwaizumi hadn’t been wrong in claiming that he was an expert at cracking totally fake smiles. “You came by to cheer us during the finals, right?”

Oh right, you had done that, dropped by to see your dear school get battered by Shiratorizawa.

-“Right,” you muttered.

-“So,” he continued, supremely unbothered. “How’s everything? We have not spoken a long time so…”

You had a feeling that Tooru Oikawa was deliberately making it difficult for you. It was not as if he was terrible at reading people’s moods. A part of you debated whether to kick him or punch him in the stomach for putting on this slap-happy facade, when you knew he was suffering.

-“I was wondering,” he started when no response had arrived from your side even after some time. “If we could meet up this Saturday, you know hang around—“

-“Yes, why not.”

His mind-reader’s eye did not even receive the requisite time to widen in shock, because you had yanked him closer by the round neck of his blue tee and clumsily pressed your lips together.

As if on cue, his arms wrapped round your waist, while his warm, wet lips skilfully deepened the kiss, softly slanting themselves against yours. Your mouths engaged in the forgetful ecstasy of exploring the other’s soft lips, tongues gently swiping in to meet, before you finally parted, gasping for air.

-“See,” you breathed, “I am sorry—“

-“You don’t have to be,” Tooru cut across. “It was your decision.”

-“Can-can we then…”

-“Of course.” He smiled, that same infuriatingly perfect smile of his that made your insides squirm with giddy joy. “I like you, Y/n, get it? Maybe, I love you too... Why else do you think no one else catches my eye?”

The fruit that took its own painful time to mature was finally within his reach, close enough for him to cherish. You were the queen to win whose heart, he had to persevere and undertake countless wars. But now that he finally could hold the person he had longed for so, so long in his arms, your soft skin within his grasp, free for him to caress, nothing short of a pure beautiful joy saturated Tooru Oikawa’s entire heart. It was at last time to reap happiness in place of the dejection he had been feeling ever since you first rejected him. Being stupid had finally paid off.

-“Tooru, I…it was really unfair and selfish of me…that day,” he watched you stutter, averting your eyes away from his gaze. He knew you were sorry. He understood that it must have hurt you too—after all, the conflict between logic and emotion was an eternal and universal one. “But when I say this,” you went on, “I mean it. I-I like you too, Tooru. Maybe I have had for a long time but I was being a—“

-“An asshole?” he completed for you, only to see your pretty e/c eyes shooting up to meet his chestnut ones again, a hint of indignation in them. “I know you, Y/n. I get it that you were sorta _dumb_ and being a jerk about it from the very start…think I never saw through those lies you spouted? But yes, I am an idiot too, because I can’t let go.”

This time a smile lit up your face and for a moment Tooru Oikawa felt as if the heavens were smiling down upon him. He had known. He had always known whether he liked it or not—that he was foolishly in love with you, another dumbass, a bigger shitbrain than him, who was busy denying their own feelings.

But love was supposed to be stupid, right?

He closed the gap between your mouths once more, to join your lips for another kiss, a shorter, sweeter one. When Tooru pulled apart, he flashed you another one of those flirtatious smiles.

-“Gotta go back, ‘kay.” He pecked the side of your head playfully. “Saturday then, babydoll.”

You nodded in consent, beaming like the lovesick fool you were being. And then realization hit you suddenly—

_Babydoll?!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gosh i kinda don't like the ending now six months after i first posted this...but lol dumb brain is not giving me any other ideas on how to end this.

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on unkahee.tumblr.com


End file.
